The present invention relates to a cooking appliance and method, which automatically sets a cooking mode based on attachments an operator may choose to use in a cooking compartment. When a start switch is operated, the cooking appliance automatically cooks food in a cooking mode as automatically set.
A prior cooking appliance, such as a microwave oven with a magnetron, an oven heater, and a grill heater, has a plurality of cooking modes. Such a cooking appliance is disclosed, for example, in Japanese laid-open Patent Application 4-10389. The cooking modes include microwave cooking using the magnetron, oven cooking using the oven heater, so that temperature in the cooking compartment is increased and the food is cooked, and grilling using the grill heater, so that the food is cooked by the radiation of the grill heater. The multi-mode microwave oven uses different attachments depending on the cooking mode selected. The microwave oven has a detection system by which any attachment placed in the cooking compartment is detected. When a door of the microwave oven is closed, the microwave oven detects such attachments. The microwave oven automatically sets the cooking mode based on the detected attachments. When a user operates a start switch, the microwave oven automatically cooks the food based on the set cooking mode.
Once the cooking mode is set, that mode remains until a new cooking mode is set. Therefore, even though a user touches the start switch only by accident long after the door is closed, the microwave oven starts cooking based on the once set cooking mode. When a user temporarily places food or anything else in the cooking compartment which the user does not want cooked, an accident can occur.
In the automatic microwave oven, all a user has to do is press the start switch. As a result, although operation becomes very easy, undesired operation also occurs easily.